The challenge

The manufacturers of the new MINI were anxious to recruit a sales force particularly suited to this key selling role. The new MINI was considered to be a unique style of product and it was recognised that selection of an appropriate sales force would be critical to the success of the project.

HPI and sales effectiveness

Research into effective selling by PCL in the UK and by Hogan Assessment Systems in the US has found that the personality characteristics that impact on performance depend on the type of sales role in question -there is more than one kind of "Sales Potential". Retail selling, selling technical products, call centre sales, selling life style products, for example, all call for different personal qualities.

The hallmarks of success

Robert Hogan's main aim, during the 25 years and more of HPI development, has always been to use the questionnaire to capture the key factors in job success, the personality features that make the difference between the most effective people and the run-of-the-mill people in any job role. This kind of performance related validity research is a feature of PCL's Evidence Based Consultancy approach. In previous projects carried out by PCL for the MINI's manufacturers, selection criteria had been based on HPI research with current employees and the best available performance data. Since PCL were asked to address the profiling of the MINI sales force before the product was launched, a different approach was necessary.

Researching the MINI sales role

The new MINI was to be marketed in a very specific way, reflecting the character of the product. The personality of the sales force needed to bear some resemblance to this marketing approach. PCL's HPI archive, built up over a number of years, includes data on many different sales roles. Having crafted an HPI profile modelled on the personality characteristics considered to fit the marketing strategy, we were able to run this against various sales groups in the PCL archive. This allowed us to estimate “closeness of fit ”with the required characteristics. The model proved, as expected, to be closer to a “life style product ”selling profile than was customary for this manufacturer, whose other product places considerable emphasis on technical quality and innovation.

Customised HPI scales

The HPI software can be configured to capture the characteristics of the most effective employees. The item clusters that distinguish the best from the rest carry most of the predictive power for any role, and can be used to build an HPI Customised Scale. This new scale then operates within the software alongside the HPI Occupational Scales and can be selected for inclusion in any report to be generated by the HPI software. A MINI Sales scale was built in this way. Since all the items in this new scale have already contributed to HPI norms, the new scale can be aligned with and normed against PCL's 7000+UK archive.

HPI Suitability Reports

HPI Suitability Reports summarise a job applicant's personality characteristics against the HPI selection criteria. This one-page report is used widely for a first screening of job applicants. Conservative cut-off scores for relevant HPI scales serve to identify those most likely to warrant further consideration for the post in question. This approach is particularly valued where large numbers of applications have to be processed. When creating the HPI Suitability Report for MINI Sales applicants we were able to include the Customised MINI Sales Scale described above.

The benefits of online logistics

In the UK, PCL has been at the forefront of developing online assessment. PCL's online assessment centre, was established in 1998 and over the subsequent years we have been able to refine this technology to achieve a highly reliable delivery system. PCL's ability to put the MINI Sales assessment process online dramatically simplified the recruitment and selection process for this client.

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